


The vents

by DailyLife



Series: Imagine if... [10]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anxiety, Depression, F/M, Isolation, Mentions of seperation, Reader is not trans!, Realization, Self Harm, Twin's, Vents, worrying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-30 05:16:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6410320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DailyLife/pseuds/DailyLife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Imagine if..</p><p>You lose your twin brother and go into isolation, only Bruce can pull you out of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The vents

**Author's Note:**

> I have finished all known requests, send some in and I'll get right on them. Thanks.

"Where is (y/n)?" Fury slammed his hand down on the table and looked to your empty chair again. He looked to the rest of the squad before Tony called on JARVIS.

"Ms. (y/n) is still in her bed, she seems to not be asleep but is relatively still." JARVIS reported gaining an eye roll from Fury.

"Stark, Banner go see if she's sick or just being lazy as always." Fury was royally pissed off by the fact that you weren't here again, he would consider firing you if you weren't such an essential part of the team, which pissed him off further.

The boys stood up and headed to the elevator to your floor which was just two down, a short walk down the hallway and to your door where they first knocked. And waited, knocked again and again waited before Tony got tired and asked for JARIVS to let them in. After walking through a very empty living room to your bedroom, Bruce grabbed Tony's arm before he opened your bedroom door. "Knock on the door first, she deserves-" 

Tony rolled his eyes "She deserves better, got it lover boy."

"I- I'm not." He cut himself off when Tony opened the door, JARVIS having no intervention of the lack of decency. 

Your room was more or less like the rest of your apartment except for the actual presence of things. Posters on the walls of Better Call Saul, a few painted ones of the team,Beatles, Adele, Pentatonix, a silence of the lambs from way back that shocked both of then and three flags, they couldn't tell what the first two were but the third was a Texas don't tread on me flag that was signed. The rest of the room but the bed and night stand was again empty.

Tony clapped once to get the energy in the room up also to signal to JARVIS to turn on the lights. " 'kay darlin', time to wake up before Fury burns down the tower."

You covered your head as the lights came on, in the process casually flipping off Tony as you curled yourself back into a ball to see if he would go away.

Tony grabbed your blankets and pulled on them, you grabbed them and pulled back pissed off as the cold air hit your face.

"What the actual fuck Tony-" You growled before realizing he wasn't alone, Bruce was with him. You were covered, leggings and a sweatshirt but that wasn't the point, it was that he saw you like this. In your apartment that you were always in but never had enough money to furnish, you knew Tony would have been perfectly happy to help you out with no debt but you couldn't do that, it just wasn't an option really. 

"Fury sent us to see if you were okay." It was Bruce who finally spoke up watching Tony throw your blankets into a corner so you had to get up. He only became concerned you realized that he was here and started truly getting angry.

You were very worried that Bruce was going to figure it all out. "I'm fine I just can't right now- can you guys just leave, I can deal with Fury later."

Tony crossed his arms "Are you sick we literally have the best doctors in the world here like you don't need to-"

"I'm not sick, I'm fine. Just leave I'll come up in a few, okay." You sat up and pointed to the open door way, most of what you said was true and you would stay true to getting up.

Tony sighed and looked to Bruce, he headed out of the room and Tony followed, shutting the door behind him.

 

You grabbed the box from underneath your bed, it was filled with make up and wigs that you kept for safety reasons. Putting on a make up/wig combo you hadn't worn before, you changed your sweatshirt to an unstained one quickly before taking the service elevator out of the building. 

You started to run, make a normal pace like a person who normally runs the streets of Manhattan to not bring any attention to yourself. Of course SHIELD would have eyes on you, they always would but at least this way you could get a little bit farther from the truth.

 

10 minutes after Tony and Bruce came back Fury bitched again about where you were, he started walking to the elevator to go get you himself when JARVIS stopped him. "Director that is not a good idea, she is not in the building anymore."

"What the hell do you mean she's not in the building, weren't you programed to tell us shit like this?" He glared at Tony who shrugged, grabbing some files from the tablet in front of him.

"It seems she left in a disguise through the service elevator, she's on a run down 7th street. No director I was not." JARVIS shut himself off before Tony put up a few holographic images in the center of the conference table.

They were pictures and images of you from your childhood, all with your twin brother until you left home before he graduated and then there is no reachable information about the two of you contacting each other until one time a year ago another a week ago. Tony swiped the pictures away, glancing at your twins doctorate degree before putting it away with the pictures. Surveillance videos show your twin ambushing you at a party nobody in the room knew about, the hug and then he left, both of your tracks completely empty until a week ago. "Sir it seems that the death certificate for (y/n) brother is sealed shall I retrieve it for you?" JARVIS asked well knowing what the anwser to that was.

Bruce looked to Tony very confused "Should we be looking through her personal life, it's a breach-"

"It's a breach in privacy, I know lover boy but her insistence that she is fine, is not backed up by this. Why would she hide this from us, it's not like we would shame her- oh man." Tony pulled up the death certificate as the main hologram on the table- cause of death, suicide. It was plain English and it was troubling, of course grief did things to people but doesn't do that. Fury's anger dropped, but he wasn't happy with you running away from this either, this is your job. "Pull up the surveillance footage of (y/n) room when she was there over the past week."

"That it's over 100 hours of footage sir, what are the filters?" JARVIS asked, uploading video clips to the frame.

Tony sighed and glanced at Bruce before speaking again. "Filters are when she seems awake, must be able to see activity she is doing and preferably with a light on."

"Here you go sir, 3 hours of footage- anyways else you want this shortened?"

"When she seems to be crying or-" he had to pause to be able to say it "self harming." He crossed his toes that the there was no clips of the latter, he knew that the way you behaved could have been from that and it hurt him to know you were in such pain you hurt yourself physically. But there was and he didn't need to play it to see what you had done, he looked to the rest of the team who had solemn looks on their faces, especially Wanda who seemed more angry than anything.

Fury took his place again as Tony swiped away the information pulling up the newest files team was being assigned.

 

Nobody saw you for the next couple of weeks, I mean nobody saw you- you had disappeared completely off of any shield's ability to track you or anything. They tried but it was like trying to find a specific piece of hay in a hay stack. 

When you did enter the tower you stuck to sleeping in the vents, rarely getting out only to eat or pee which you rarely needed to do anyways. Everyday from when it was known you were back Bruce would show it up to your door, hoping you where in there. When you weren't he left back to his lab to work for the next 20 before he checked again.

Barton reported your movements in the vents to the team so instead of showing up to your apartment door, Bruce would stand up in the lab on a step stool and poke his head up before leaving a water bottle, a protein bar, and a shirt neatly up in it. 

You stayed away from that set of vents when he started climbing, you would leave your dirty shirt, empty water bottle, and the wrapper from the bar where he left the original set. During the day you would watch him research his next theory or google ways to lure you out of the vents or talk to this doctor Jane about finding a specialist to help you.

He finally cornered you when he entered the lab when you were changing shirts. For whatever reason that lead you to decide to get completely out of the vents was crazy, he was carrying a stark tablet when he saw you, just covered with your binder and leggings. He didn't say anything at first, he frowned a little bit but didn't really seem to be feeling anything. And I t was terrifying knowing that he saw you, he saw your stomach, your scars, he saw you.

"You know you can injure yourself when you find with those ace bandage things." The words were filled with slight disappointment, you looked away from him and nodded before taking a step back towards the open vent you had planned on getting back in, in. He set down the tablet and held up his hands in a sign of defeat. "Don't go back up please, Tony's been running himself to death trying to find a way to help you- we all have. We care (y/n) please believe me."

You took another few steps back, your grasp on the shirt in your hand tightening as you weighed your options. But the thing was you couldn't open up, you couldn't open up your heart for the same reasons why you hid your scars and hated the summer, you couldn't because if you did it showed how truly weak you were and it exposed you. There was no other hand no other option because you couldn't do it.

Bruce begged you- something you never thought you would witness. "Please, you can't- please don't. What will it take for you to stay down here just for another hour or so?"

"Could I have a hug?" It was childish and so primitive, but so natural of a request from the lack of human interaction over the past month. That was your choice but still could one not make up for their own mistakes.

He nodded and you dropped your shirt as his walked over to him, he embraced you, holding you tight against him. After a moment silent sobs racked your body, your face pressed into the crook of his neck. 

The skin of his neck was now wet with your tears, it scared him how this comforted him just so- how the other guy was finally settled down after his last incident. This scared him that he dare admit that he loved this- you and him.


End file.
